Institute on Methods and Protocols for Advancement of Clinical Trials in ADRD (IMPACT-AD) Alumni Scholar Conference

Project Summary Initially funded in 2019, the Institute on Methods and Protocols for Advancement of Clinical Trials in ADRD (IMPACT-AD) course has been a highly successful effort to train the next generation of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and Related Disorders (AD/ADRD) clinical trialists. In four completed years of this competitive course, we have trained 151 investigators. Despite these successes, the vision for IMPACT-AD has not yet been fully realized. That vision is of an alumni scholar network of well-trained AD/ADRD clinical trialists with the leadership, technical, and scientific skills and connections necessary to carry the field forward, toward its goal of developing safe and effective therapies to prevent and halt all neurodegenerative causes of cognitive impairment. Trialists are infrequently supported or rewarded in academic settings, with still inadequate recognition of the value in leading trials locally or nationally and resultant difficulties in securing promotions or other career advances. Moreover, though the IMPACT-AD course has finally (in 2022 and 2023) been held in person after being forced to be held remotely by Zoom due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the opportunities for IMPACT-AD alumni scholars to connect with each other to build collaborations and research partnerships are highly limited. IMPACT-AD alumni scholars need continued training, mentoring, and opportunities to strengthen their network. Given these facts, we propose to repurpose this U13 award to address the critical needs of the IMPACT-AD alumni scholars by convening an annual IMPACT-AD Alumni Scholar Conference. The objectives of this Alumni Scholar Conference are to: 1) Provide IMPACT-AD alumni scholars additional training and skills to support their scientific and career advances, and 2) Enhance the network of IMPACT-AD alumni scholars by facilitating deeper knowledge of others in the network to enhance scientific collaboration.